176 FOOD AND COOKERY 



digestion may be set going, and the absence of the right 

 flavour and the presence of what is, in his experience, a 

 wrong and disgusting smell or taste in the food set before 

 him, will produce nausea and complete arrest of the diges- 

 tive processes. 



It is apparently owing to this cause that " tinned 

 meats " have proved to be of little value as rations for an 

 army in campaign, for exploring expeditions, and for 

 remote mining camps. It is not that such tinned meats 

 do not contain the necessary constituents of food, or that 

 they contain poisonous substances, but that they produce 

 a sense of disgust, and arrest the digestive processes. 

 Soldiers, travellers, and miners have assured me that they 

 prefer a dry biscuit and dried, or salted, or sugared meat, 

 to the supposed more " tasty " tinned meats, and that such 

 is the general experience of their comrades. 



Of similar nature is another very serious trouble, in 

 regard to the healthy feeding of the modern Englishman, 

 which has come upon us in consequence of the quite 

 modern system of huge restaurants, whether in London 

 or in the very large hotels, which are now run in Swiss, 

 Italian and English summer resorts. Hundreds of 

 visitors are " catered for " daily. There is no attempt 

 at anything which deserves the name of cookery. Great 

 monopolists control the supplies, and contract to deliver 

 to these hotels, even in out-of-the-way localities, so 

 much ice-stored, " mousey " fish, " mousey " quails, stringy 

 meat, impossible vegetables, and fruits, gathered from 

 the cheapest markets of Europe and of a quality just 

 not bad enough to cause a revolt among the hotel 

 visitors. The heating of the food is done by patent 

 machinery in ovens and by the use of boiling fat. No 

 cook is in these circumstances possible, with his artistic 

 feeling for the production of a perfect result of skill and 

 taste. A kind of bottled meat-flavoured sauce, manu- 



